Chumela to Tenacatita

No wind on the Gold Coast today for our day sail to Tenacatita, so we did some exploring.

We anchored off the beach in the cruisers’ anchorage. It’s at the entrance to the estuary, the jungle ride. We dropped the dinghy in and went to shore. We were too late for the one pulapa on the beach that serves till late afternoon. So we just explored. There is a hotel on the beach a mile from the estuary, otherwise that’s it for this part of the bay.

First thing the next morning we set out on the jungle ride to Tenacatita beach. This is a path up an estuary into the mangroves down a channel that narrows slowly becoming a tunnel. It’s a trip that if you want to experience to its fullest you need to turn the motor off to experience the life, the sounds, and the smells. The further in you get the whiter and whiter the water gets as it gets more and more brackish. The smell of sulfur from the decomposing organic matter gets stronger and stronger. That’s another reason to leave the outboard off so not to release any more sulfer than necessary. Bright red crabs, iguanas and baby crocs rest on the branches to avoid being lunch for the adult crocs. The path opens up to a lagoon at the end where you can land your dinghy and walk 100 yards to the beach. This beach when I visited 20 years ago was developed with paved streets, sidewalks, homes, hotels, and resturanrs. 9 years ago we drove in to visit and it looked like a hurricane had leveled everything. Truth was a new land owner and his hired army took control of the road that led from the nearesrt pueblo to the beach. He evicted all the tenants and by the time the beach folk could sue the guy he went in and leveled everything. When I was here 9 years ago they had just won in court. It’s taken this long to just get the rudimentary infrastructure of the pulapas going again.

La Manzanilla

The night after our Jungle Ride brought a thunderstorm which lasted till noon. We decided to make a run to La Manzanila on the eastern end of Tenacatita bay since it looked like things were clearing. Info from one of the neighbors was that it took them 45 min to get across the bay with the caveat that their dinghy was pretty slow. Well I guess it is because it only took us 20 min to get there. We didn’t dodge all the rain, but since we were traveling at a good clip only the front of our clothes were wet when we got there. We pulled up where all the pangas were beached and had a snack at the resturant there.

Then we wandered down the main drag till we got to the lagoon to find us some crocs! We didnt have to look very hard for them.

Tenacatita play day

We thought it was time for a break from our usual break and hang out in the anchorage for the day. Had some water fun with the surfboard. Played on the beach, then snuck into the hotel and avoided security long enough for a swim in the pool. That afternoon we met up with the regular cruising crowd for bocce, food and drink at the only place in the anchorage. Most of the cruisers we met fit the profile of “planned to cruise around the world but got to this area of Mexico and didn’t feel the need to go further’. They generally move between Manzanillo, Barra, Tenacatita and Banderas Bay. Some years they may venture as far south as Zihua in the winter or the Sea of Cortez in the summer. Some head back home in the hurricane season. Some stay, but they have been cruising this way for years. Some for decades.

We left for Barra de Navidad the next day with a planned stop at the “Aquarium”. This is a snorkel/dive spot off Tenacatita beach at the other end of the jungle ride.